Genre: Drama/Mystery
Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama or any of the characters... with some possible exceptions.
A/N: I don't know if any of you actually read my other story, A Second Chance, but I'm just going to mention it here anyway. Sorry, guys, I will be starting that story after finishing this one. Before you start throwing rotten eggs, or even 'I don't give a ****' eggs at me, I will just like to say that I'm in a fix regarding that particular story and I need to think more about it before advancing further. I'm sure that you guys won't want a half-assed story with tons of loopholes as well, right? ;)
Gintama: Sinister Arc
"Shin-chan!" there was a crisp knock on the door.
Shimura Shinpachi looked up from the photo album he had been studying; he turned around with a curious air.
"What is it, Ane?" the bespectacled teenager called in response.
The door slid open to reveal a woman with her brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Despite himself, the teenager could not help but gulp at the beautiful exterior of his own sister. It was downright immoral and crazy to even think about it, but he couldn't help it. His mind had locked all memories of his friends and family away, and that included his sister as well. As a result, it felt as though he had lunged into one of those animes that catered to lonely and tissue-scrunching males; seeing as he finds himself alone in an entire estate with a beautiful woman who seems to care for him beyond what a normal sister will do.
Shimura Tae stepped into the room, her pleasant disposition marred by a slight flick of annoyance.
"Didn't I ask you to address me by the same term you always did?" his sister chided. "When you say Ane, it sounds as though I'm only your sister in name."
Shinpachi smiled awkwardly; fact was… he had been too shy to address her by the informal and uncomfortably… close term of Ane-ue. He didn't even remember her, for freaking sake. It will be like he was calling a random stranger on the road by his or her first name.
"Sorry… I'm still getting used to it…" the teenager replied hesitantly.
Otae's face visibly softened.
"It's alright, Shin-chan," she said softly. "What matters is that you are safe and sound…"
She paused for a brief moment, before letting out a gasp.
"Ah, I totally forgot!" Otae exclaimed. "Shin-chan, you have a visitor!"
Shinpachi looked at her blankly. Who will be visiting him at this time of the day?
"Who is it, Ane-"
"Hello, Shinpachi. Hope I'm not intruding here."
A light-brown haired male clad in a black uniform stepped in around the corner of the door, a deadpan expression on his face.
"You are…?" the teenager found himself asking.
The young man looked at him with what seemed to be an intense gaze. Shinpachi barely managed to avoid flinching at that pair of crimson eyes directed at him.
"It appears that you are really amnesiac…" the light-brown haired male uttered softly. Stepping forward, he approached a distinctly discomfited Shinpachi.
"My name is Okita Sougo, and I am the captain of the Shinsengumi's first division. Will it be fine if I ask you some questions?"
O O O
Otae excused herself to let them converse in private. Shinpachi watched her go with a fleeting sense of regret; even if he had not remembered her, she will have at the very least provided the presence of a third person. Somehow, he did not relish the prospect of being alone with this particular person. For some reason or another, the other seemed kind of… imposing. Or maybe it was just his inferiority complex acting up at the captain's striking good looks.
Seated on the floor with their eyes greeting each other, a brief silence ensued before the light-brown haired man cleared his throat.
"So… Shinpachi…" Sougo spoke.
"Yes?" Shinpachi replied a tad too hastily. He flinched at the discerning gaze of the captain.
"Before we get everything started, I just want to know…"
The bespectacled teenager instinctively recoiled as Sougo leant forward in his place.
"Yes…?" Shinpachi mumbled hesitantly. What was up with the guy?
The captain was silent for a moment.
"How much do you remember? Or rather…"
Shinpachi froze in place.
"What can you remember?"
O O O
Shinpachi had, to be honest, never been so glad to end a conversation before… that was before he had been interrogated by the captain of the Shinsengumi. Deep down, he felt that even the session with Hijikata wasn't as tense or as painfully long. In fact, he would rather that he had been asked by the vice-commander himself, rather than this seemingly even more imposing captain.
"I-Is it done?" the bespectacled teenager mumbled. "Am I free to go?"
The captain did not reply; he simply sat there with an impervious air, staring into space thoughtfully.
Shinpachi wanted to add on to his earlier sentence, but feared a possible backlash by the evidently unpredictable captain before him. What if the captain went all irritated and arrested him on the spot for some crime of interruption? Yet, he seriously didn't want to spend another minute with the other. He was feeling constricted, restricted by the captain's presence alone.
"What should I do…?" the bespectacled teenager thought. "Should I try to-"
"Hey."
Shinpachi instinctively looked up to see the captain gazing at him.
"Yes…?" the teenager voiced with a tinge of relief. It was about time…
"Let me get this straight," Sougo droned. "You don't remember anybody save for the ones you had encountered after you first woke up in a foreign room and after that just hid in this room for the rest of your sad life?"
Shinpachi's right eye twitched relentlessly; had the captain just taken a dig at him? But… he could not dispute the other's accusations. The fact was that he had indeed closed himself in his own room once he had returned home. He couldn't help it; the last thing he had remembered after entering an apartment of some sort was traversing some hallway. The next thing he recalled, he was in a totally different room with a worried woman beside him. The interval in between was totally impossible to grasp.
The bespectacled teenager bit his lip as he slowly nodded his head.
Sougo did not say anything for a moment. The next second, he was up on his feet and walking away from the teenager. Shinpachi felt a surge of intense relief.
"Um…" the teenager breathed quickly. "Are you going-"
He froze; the captain had opened a drawer of his most treasured items and was rummaging in the stuff uninvited.
Shinpachi could hardly breathe. Everything he had treasured was stashed neatly in that particular drawer and the captain had actually pointed it out at first look; looking through it as if they were his own. The teenager wanted to fly into a rage, but fear of the captain kept him in place. Clenching his fists at his side, he mustered the courage to make a comment.
"Um… Okita-san…" the teenager said hesitantly. "What are you looking for-"
He stared blankly as the captain drew out something and dangled it in the air. It was the limited edition of a figure; and it was causing these crazy ripples through his heart.
"Do you remember this person?" Sougo asked, deadpanned.
Shinpachi could not even breathe. Something about it was causing him to go all crazy, yet he didn't know what it was. Slowly and tentatively, he shook his head.
"You don't remember her?" the captain asked. He gave the figure a long look, before positioning it between his hands. Shinpachi's heart seemed to clench.
"Well, if you don't remember her… I suppose I can just break her then."
A lion seemed to roar in the bespectacled teenager's heart; he wanted to shout that he actually remembered her. He closed his eyes with a flourish, trying his hardest to jerk some memory from his slumbering brain. Nothing gave.
"Wait!" Shinpachi gasped, reaching out a hand.
Sougo paused, looking at him blankly.
The bespectacled teenager breathed heavily as he stared at the dangling figure. It was something… something important to him, that much he was sure of. Why was it important, though? Why did he feel such a strong emotion at the mere sight of it?
"I think… I know that person…" Shinpachi said slowly. "I think…"
"Oh…?" Sougo replied curiously. Giving the figure another long look, he shrugged and to the teenager's ultimate horror, broke the figurine in half.
Everything seemed to flow in slow-motion. Shinpachi gazed with glassy eyes as the mutilated figurine fell through the air, limbs flinging uselessly in the air. When it finally landed on the floor, its eyes seemed to stare at him. A pair of eyes… filled with lamentation and resignation…
The teenager subconsciously twisted the front of his robes; his heart felt exceptionally heavy… and painful. Why…? Why was he so upset over a mere figurine? Was he actually upset over the figurine itself… or something else altogether? After all, when did the eyes of plastic dolls possess… feelings?
Sougo looked at him with an undiscernible gaze.
"So," the captain voiced casually, as if he had merely broken some spare rock off the ground. "Did that ring any bells in your mind?"
There was no answer. Sougo tapped his fingers on the brown woodwork just next to the drawer.
"Perhaps you did not hear my question…" the captain said slowly. "I asked… did that cause you to recall anything-"
"Shut up."
Sougo creased his eyebrows.
"What did you say-"
"I said, shut the hell up!"
There was a brief stoic silence, during which neither spoke up. Sougo was impassive in the face of a tempered Shinpachi; yet even the unexpected outburst did not serve to deter the captain.
"I heard that you went into a state of shock when you saw China," the light-brown haired man continued. "What did you see in that alleyway?"
"I told you…" the bespectacled teenager uncharacteristically gritted his teeth. "I… don't… remember… anything."
"Really…? Then why are you so emotional over the breaking of a little doll?" Sougo asked.
"It was because…" Shinpachi averted his eyes. "It was because it was a limited Edition of Otsuu-chan…"
"Oh…?" the captain expressed. "I thought that you can't remember the people around you?"
The bespectacled teenager did not meet his eyes as he uttered," I saw her on television, that's why…"
"Really…?" Sougo pressed on. "I thought that you didn't recognize her initially?"
Shinpachi found it hard to fend off the increasing accusations. How was he supposed to explain something that he didn't even know himself?
"I- I was confused back there, that's why-"
"You saw something, didn't you?" the captain interjected. "You saw something when I broke that doll."
The bespectacled teenager subconsciously bit his lips.
"I didn't-"
"Why are you hesitating? You saw something, didn't you? Why are you attempting to deny it when your own face had given away the truth?"
Shinpachi looked at the ground blankly. How was he supposed to explain that pair of lifeless eyes that were staring back at him? How was he supposed to explain that the sight was not the first in the past week? How was he supposed to say that he had been having these gruesome nightmares every single night, where a redhead with contracted pupils will dismember a silver-haired man right before his very eyes? He hadn't even mentioned them to his own sister, for fear of being judged as an insane teenager. What kind of sister will continue caring for her own brother after hearing such demented and twisted stories?
He inadvertently gasped; the captain was grasping him by his shoulders. The teenager tried to avoid the other's crimson eyes, gaze darting everywhere but the figure before him.
"Don't keep them to yourself, Shinpachi. Relate them to me. What did you see?"
"I can't… Okita-san… I can't-"
"You can. If Boss and China can do it, so can you."
Shinpachi slowly met the intense gaze of the captain. His fists shook at his sides.
"Can I? Can I really say them…?"
His eyes widened despite himself. It wasn't a light-brown haired man standing before him; it was the strangely familiar gaze of a pair of dead fish eyes before him. He watched blankly as the silver-haired man grinned.
"Of course you can tell me, idiot. Even if everyone else refuses to listen to you, I will always be here to lend a listening ear. That's what I'm here for in the first place."
O O O
Sougo closed the door after him, his expression impassive and brooding. He barely noticed when a redhead broke away from the side of the wall and started walking alongside him.
"What took you so long, sadist?" Kagura asked reproachfully. "I almost had to force myself to down Anego's food!
The captain arched an eyebrow. "So did you?"
"Of course not, creep. I wasn't that hungry."
They traversed the length of the hallway in silence, before the Yato took a deep breath.
"Was Shinpachi okay?" she mustered.
Sougo hardly reacted; she will not have been China if she hadn't even tried to eavesdrop on their conversation. "You heard everything?"
"Not everything…" Kagura replied hesitantly. "But I did hear some details…" she trailed off.
Sougo shot her a look out of the corner of his eye. "Don't worry, he's fine. He seemed a bit pale after regurgitating everything, but a bit of sleep should fix that."
"Everything?" the redhead expressed curiously. "Did he tell you everything? From what I heard, he was just telling you about his dreams, yup."
"So you did hear everything…" Sougo sighed. Gazing straight ahead, his eyebrows were furrowed. "To me, that was everything I needed."
"Needed?" Kagura inquired as she turned around a corner. "What did you need?"
The captain did not consent to pause. "The information of what exactly happened in those areas."
The Yato looked confused.
"But… Shinpachi just told you his dreams… they might not be the real thing…"
Sougo reached out a hand and opened a door. He subconsciously registered the sheer size of the entire estate. They could take ten minutes and still not reach the main entrance; that was how ridiculously gigantic the entire estate seemed to be.
"Coming from an oddly amnesiac person, the dreams are the best bet for me. Besides, they confirm what I had been expecting since day one, so I'm content with what I have."
Kagura creased her eyebrows. "And what did you get? Some idiotic thinking that the sky is red…?"
Sougo barely registered the cutting vibe; he could see the seated figure of a woman in the distance. To be honest, he was hesitant to converse about his theories before actually starting the searching. What if they were actually wrong…? Not that they were. It was a long shot, but he did seem to owe the Yato. It was a bummer, but telling her will hardly hurt.
"Sadly, no," the captain said crisply. "The sky was already blue, don't worry about it."
He narrowed his eyes.
"From the looks of it… there are not one, but two murderers responsible for the killings. They have their own specific killing styles, and from the gist of it, their own specific methods as well. However, there's a distinct similarity between their methods. Both of them plant fake visuals into victims' minds, crippling them with raw emotion and the paralyzing horror of sighting such scenes. Once they are immobilized, that's when the killers make their move. That will also be why there had always been two killings in each district, and why the victims were either stabbed through the throat or impaled through the head."
"So that's how they got me…" the redhead breathed. "What a bunch of sadistic freaks, letting a maiden see such stuff. Damn it."
She tilted her head. "Wait, since when were humans able to feed such gross stuff into others' minds?"
Sougo sighed despite himself.
"This is why you should eat more fishes and less rice, China. You will have more of a brain." He dodged a sharp jab aimed at his head. "Surely you could tell by now? They are not humans. They are Amantos."
"Amantos…?" Kagura withdrew her hand. "Amantos have been the ones killing all those humans?"
"Without a doubt," the captain replied softly. "No human could possess such skills, not even that mayo-loving freak or a sadistic Boss that I know-"
He caught himself, but it was too late. The redhead stopped in her tracks, seemingly hit by some elusive realization.
"Gin-chan…?" Kagura breathed. "Gin-chan… where's Gin-chan? Why haven't I seen him around?"
Sougo wasn't the type to hit himself for such a ridiculous slip-up; he was your too-cool and calm character who takes everything composedly. Besides, he hardly had to cover for his mistake, seeing as there was a perfect cover-up right ahead.
"Ah, Sister-in-law!" the captain announced himself cheerily, ignoring a pointed look from the redhead. "Sorry for- hmmm…?"
A fist loomed in his face.
O O O
"Did you two have a nice chat with Shin-chan?" Otae asked with that familiar smile on her face. They were seated on the floor opposite each other, with a brown wooden table separating them. "I do hope that he had been a good host."
"Yup, Anego," Kagura quipped. "We had a good chat with four-eye, so everything is fine."
Sougo, on the other hand, simply stared pointedly at Otae; his right cheek was a distinct purple, but it hardly bothered him at the moment.
He narrowed his eyes; the older woman's smile looked like it was being stretched against her own will. From the looks of it, her real question had not been the one she had posed, but rather a desperate one along the lines of," Did he recognize the two of you?" The captain was never one to bother with others' affairs, but the situation seemed to call for it. Besides, it might help in Kondo-san's love life, so all was positive.
"He will be fine," the captain said monotonously. The other two turned to look at him. "He's not weak. He will recover soon."
Otae did not look totally reassured, but her smile did lose some of its tightness. It was evident that she had been hoping for a slightly… better reply.
"I see…" she said softly, looking at the floor. There was a stoic silence, before the older woman seemed to realize that the other two were looking at her.
"Sorry for ignoring the two of you like that…" she muttered apologetically. "Really, what's wrong with me today…"
The juniors did not say a word; they did not know what to say.
Slowly, Otae recovered her composure and looked at them again. Sougo had a bad feeling when she gazed at Kagura with a worried look.
"Kagura-chan," the older woman asked concernedly. "Are you alright?"
The redhead beamed as she replied," Never better, Anego."
Otae did not avert her gaze; seconds passed before she seemed to be finally convinced by the Yato's smile. Looking away, she reached for something on the floor and presented it on the table. The faces of the other two instantly darkened; it was a plate of ominously dark matter. In fact, in Sougo's eyes, there seemed to be an intense, charcoal-dark aura emanating from the food itself.
"I'm glad that you are feeling better, Kagura-chan…" the older woman commented as she set about pouring tea into cups. "You had us worried when you weren't yourself for the past week… but then, I'm glad that you have recovered… it's okay, Kagura-chan… they will find Gin-san for sure-"
"Ahem!" Sougo coughed. "Sorry, ladies, but I've got to go. Shinsengumi business, if you don't mind."
"Oh…" Otae looked up. "I see, that's a pity… but before you leave, please have some of these fried eggs-"
"It's fine, Sister- Otae-san," the captain got to his feet hurriedly. "I will pass on it just this time."
With that, he excused himself and took rapid steps in the direction of the main entrance.
O O O
"Idiotic woman…" Sougo muttered. "I actually did her a favour and she repays me with an exceptionally large mouth…"
The captain walked out of the Shimura estate, his eyes averting to the right. Almost simultaneously, he began to traverse the length of the walkway.
"Regardless…" Sougo thought. "I have a pretty good inkling by now. After all, if their bodies were not at the scene and they aren't dead…"
His crimson eyes narrowed.
"I have no idea why, but they were probably taken by those sadistic bastards. Perhaps they were abducted to be maids on some alien ship. Then again, I really couldn't care less about two useless people on this planet."
He paused despite himself.
"The question now is… where are them?"